Only In The Moonlight
by EdwardAddict69
Summary: When a new mysterious, night hunting sixth year arrives at Hogwarts half way through Harry's sixth year, weird things start happening and Voldemort seems to be bent on only one thing. The only question Harry has is, Does he like her or not?
1. Prologue

Prologue

Gasping for air and clutching her side, she ran as fast as she could. Not daring to turn her head, she was sure that he was still on her heals. Turning this way and that as she ran, she tried to throw him off unsuccessfully. Only the moon lighted her forest path, making it almost impossible to see anything, including the tree root that stuck up from the ground. Her foot catching on it, she fell to the ground. He would be on her in no time. Getting up on her hands and knees, trying to push herself off the ground to make her escape, she felt the cold hands grab her. A scream left her open mouth as she felt two long fangs pierce the skin on her neck.

Her life was over. She was dead. He had gotten her. Opening her eyes groggily, Taylor shook the thoughts from her head. She was alive; maybe she had just imagined it. Her hand reaching slowly to her neck feeling around for the two marks she knew would be there, she found them. Reality came back to her, smacking her in the face. Last night wasn't a dream. Standing up slowly, she looked around, realizing that she was still in the forest that her family had been camping in the night before. Taking a deep breath she headed in the direction she knew the tent was located.

It didn't take too long for her to reach the noisy camp ground where her mother, father and sister were waiting for her. The moment their eyes landed on her, they screamed. Her mother ran towards her and hugged her youngest daughter tightly. As she let go however, there was no way that she could hide the fear that was filling her whole body. "T-Taylor…h-honey…what happened?" she stuttered. Taylor looked at her mother then began to cry as she told them what had happened to her in the forest. "B-baby…l-look in the car mirror…" Taylor looked at her parents, fear on her face as well as she turned and made her way slowly to the car. Nothing could prepare her for what she saw in the mirror. Her face was tearstained and blood covered her lips and jaw. The truth hit her…she was now like the thing that attacked her the night before. "I-I'm…I'm a v-vampire."


	2. Chapter 1

1

There was nothing more appealing then night; darkness closing in around you, making you practically invisible to everybody. Perhaps if the whole world lived in darkness they would be able to get along. There would be no way to tell what everybody looked like, which would mean no stereotypes on appearance, and no need to hide any…certain physical traits from people. However, the world lived in daylight. She had no other choice but to hide her unique traits. Lucky her though, it was night, meaning that she could have some time to roam around freely.

Wandering around the forest got a bit tiring night after night, yet she needed to in order to survive. If she didn't hunt away from the school at night, she and others could possibly die. This was the one place where she had a clean slate, a fresh start. Albus had graciously let her into the school, the Potions Master and Nurse making her the same potion to control her cravings week after week. Despite the potions however, sometimes she would feel a large craving that she could not resist and would then resort to hunting in the forest for small animals instead of feasting on her peers in the castle.

The darkness was pressing in around her as she walked slowly through the mass of trees. Instead of looking like a regular human walking through the forest leaving footprints on the moist ground, Taylor blended in with her surroundings, almost gliding on the mossy floor, no traces of her steps behind. Almost giving up on finding anything to settle her craving with, Taylor turned around figuring that she would have to spend another night eating raw meat in the school Kitchens. After spending quite a few nights in the kitchens sampling all the meat that house elves had in stock she quickly found that their raw steaks tasted just as good as the small creatures in the forest.

Taking a few steps back towards the castle, she stopped suddenly. Leaves rustled behind her and judging from the amount of noise it was making, it was probably a small fox. Seconds later Taylor was bent low over the fox, her mouth on its little furry neck. Long sharp piercing fangs punctured the skin and warm blood started gushing out. The thick liquid tasted so good as it ran down her throat, calming her craving. After getting her fill, she stood up. The fox lay still at her feet. She hadn't drunk enough to drain it completely, just enough to knock it out for a few minutes. Taking out her wand, she murmured a charm; the two little holes where her fangs had gone in, disappeared. Retracting her fangs back into her gums, Taylor turned back towards the castle and made her way slowly back towards her new home.

* * *

It seemed as if no matter where he went in the castle there seemed to be only one topic on everybody's mind: the new sixth year that had transferred after Christmas. For once in his life, he was glad that he wasn't the main zoo attraction. But part of him couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. He tried to imagine what it would be like to start at a new school in the middle of the year, not knowing anybody, not knowing what work they had done, and not even having the chance to join the Quidditch team. Walking down the marble staircase into the cavernous and bustling Entrance Hall, Harry decided that his pity for the sixth year overcame his relief at not being the center of attention. Barely anybody even took the time to glance at Harry anymore, which was a good change for the time being. The only downside was that Hermione was too busy trying to find out what house the transfer student was in so they could be friends (unless of course she was a Slytherin) while Ron was trying to find out if she was single or not.

Taking a sharp left through a tall set of solid oak doors, the sight of the busy, filled and at the moment very owl filled Great Hall met his eyes. Walking past the Slytherin table a small look of disgust formed on his face as he saw Draco Malfoy in deep conversation with Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini, presumably about the new transfer. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables were more or less in the same situation; groups of students from every year were gossiping about the transfer, discussing from what house she was in to if she was pureblood or muggle born. Harry did his best to ignore all of this as he made his way near the middle of the less-then-filled Gryffindor table, sitting on the worn bench across from the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan. Those three at least weren't talking about who the transfer was; they were too busy looking at her. Following their gaze, Harry's green eyes fell onto the figure of a beautiful girl seated by herself looking glumly at the bowl of porridge in front of her. Noticing how every other Gryffindor at the table was too busy talking about her to actually talk _to_ her, Harry stood up and moved himself to the lonely sixth year.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" Harry tapped her gently on the shoulder, noticing that her black robes seemed to be stained with green and brown. Wondering how she would've gotten grass and mud stains on her robes on the first day of term Harry realized that she was looking at him. Being that close to her he had a pretty view of what she looked like; her blonde hair fell into pools of a mystifying blue which were captivating. Having been so preoccupied with her eyes it took Harry a couple of second before he realized that she had given him an answer. Blinking and shaking his head quickly he gave her an apologetic look, "Sorry, didn't catch that." Flashing a small smile in his direction she spoke again, "No the seat isn't taken." If there were angels on the earth Harry was sure that they would've sounded like the girl sitting beside him. Her voice seemed to be made up of billions of music notes, but only the good ones. Sitting down on the bench beside her, Harry was sure that he could listen to her beautiful soft voice all day long.

Hastily grabbing some bacon, toast and a small bowl of porridge, Harry tried to keep his eyes on what he was doing. Twice he almost poured Pumpkin juice into his porridge but stopped himself just in time. "You must be the transfer," he said, casting around for something to talk about; the silence that had fallen after he sat down was becoming unbearable. Picking up her spoon and stirring her porridge slowly the girl replied. "Yeah. I'm Taylor O'Neill. My parents thought I'd be better off here then …" she trailed off, her gaze moving from her porridge to the enchanted ceiling which today was a cloudy but sunny day. Harry, however, kept his gaze on Taylor. He wondered where her parents thought was worse than Hogwarts but decided it best not to ask at the moment; she didn't seem to want to talk about it. "Nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter," he said, raising his goblet of Pumpkin Juice to his lips. The girl's eyes darted from the ceiling back to Harry. Despite the fact that he was looking at his plate laden with food that he suddenly didn't want to eat, Harry felt her eyes move to his scar.

Lowering his goblet back down to the table Harry turned back to Taylor, now sure that he wasn't hungry. She seemed to be considering something for a look of deep thought had formed on her face as she searched Harry's. When she opened her mouth to speak Harry didn't hear her beautiful angel voice. Instead he heard that of Hermione who had come up behind him. "Harry! There you are! Ron and I have been looking for you all morning! Come on, we're going to be late for History of Magic," she said stepping into Harry's line of view. Urgency was printed all over her face and glancing at his watch he too saw that they only had a couple of minutes to make their way to the History of Magic classroom on the first floor. Letting out a sigh, he flashed an apologetic smile towards Taylor. "It was nice meeting you. I'll see you in class," he said quickly as Hermione practically dragged him towards the door. After seeing the faint smile returned to him, Harry turned around and pulled his arm free of Hermione's death grip.

History of Magic was as dull as always despite Harry and Ron's feeble attempts to make it more amusing by playing hangman on a scrap bit of parchment Ron had found in his pocket. Hermione kept casting them dark looks for not paying attention on their first day back but the two ignored it. No matter how mad she said she was, by the time they were all seated in the common room hopelessly lost in their homework Hermione would share her notes. After six years of being friends Harry and Ron still couldn't figure out how she was able to stand Professor Binns' droning and copy notes. While Ron was busy thinking of a new word for their game of hangman Harry found his thoughts far from the parchment; he was too busy thinking about the transfer and where she was. The moment he had walked into the classroom he looked around expecting to see her there as she was a sixth year too, but she was no where to be seen. Their conversation came back to him and Harry spent the remainder of the class thinking about where she had come from, what she was about to tell him before Hermione interrupted, and where she was.


	3. Chapter 2

2

A short stubby man was on his knees in a deep bow, sobs shaking his whole body. "W-we could not g-get to her m-my l-l-lord," he stuttered between sobs. A high pitch voice was what responded to the man, "Where is she now?" The man on his knees started to whimper, not daring to look up at his master. "Wormtail, I asked you a question. Where is she?" the cold and now angry high pitch voice asked again. He was not getting the answers he needed meaning that somebody was in severe trouble. "W-we d-do not know f-for su-sure my lord…b-but w-we think th-the g-girl is at H-H-Hogwarts," the stubby man finally choked out before returning to his fear-filled sobs. The high pitch voice remained silent for a few moments before taking a few steps around the dark damp room. Cracks like spider webs were on each of the four graying walls of the dimly lit room. The only light came from a melting candle on a spindly leg table next to the kneeling man. Returning to his spot in front of the sobbing heap of old tattered robes, the high pitched voice spoke once more. "Find Narcissa. I want her son here. Now." The sobbing faltered. "Y-yes my lord, o-of course my lord," he stammered, bowing himself out of the room. Once the dark wooden door closed with a snap, the high pitch voice hissed to itself. "She won't be able to escape us much longer."

"Harry…Harry!" Hearing Ron calling his voice Harry awoke with a start. He had fallen asleep in one of the large squishy arm chairs in front of the fireplace which was now filled with faintly glowing embers. Most of the Gryffindor students had already gone to bed leaving Hermione, Ron and Harry alone in the dark silence. Ron and Hermione exchanged glances before looking at Harry. "Are you ok, Harry?" Hermione asked, genuine worry plastered over her face. It didn't take Harry as long to find his voice as what he thought it would. "Yeah…why?" Another glance was exchanged and Harry got the feeling that they knew what he had been dreaming about. "Well, it's just you were…" Hermione started but Ron cut in before she could finish, "talking in your sleep. It sounded like you were having…one of _those_ dreams again." Looking between his friends Harry quickly retold every detail he could remember about his dream. When he finished Ron was looking somewhat triumphant and Hermione nervous. "You know what this means right? Malfoy's in the league with You-Know-Who!" Ron exclaimed looking pleased at finally having a solid reason why Professor Dumbledore should kick Draco out of Hogwarts. Brow furrowed beneath her bushy brown hair, Hermione seemed to be lost in thought. It didn't take too long for Harry and Ron to find out what it was she was thinking about.

"You know what this means, don't you?" she finally said quietly as though the room were filled with people craning towards them to eavesdrop on their conversation. "We can finally be rid of Malfoy!" Ron said excitedly. Harry however had the fleeting sensation that he knew there was bad news and that Hermione's answer didn't involve their nemesis leaving school. "If Malfoy really is a Death Eater and he's made it into Hogwarts then there are probably ways for him to get other Death Eaters in as well. Hogwarts isn't safe anymore," Hermione concluded grimly, completely squashing the small bubble of hope that had formed in Harry's chest. The memory of the vivid dream kept replaying in his mind._ "W-we think th-the g-girl is at H-H-Hogwarts."_ Wormtail had said that whoever it was Voldemort wanted was at Hogwarts, but who? He had said that it was a girl, but which one? Hogwarts had hundred of girls living in it; the only chance that they had to find the girl and warn her about the danger that may lie in her path was to go around and ask each and every girl if they had any reason why Voldemort would want them. More questions formed in Harry's mind. Voldemort was looking for a certain girl, but why? Did he want to kill her? Did he want her on their side? Shaking his head, he looked back up at Hermione and Ron. The two pieces of parchment that they had been scribbling their Potions essay on were now rolled up and being put back into their satchels.

Looking in his friends' tired faces Harry suddenly realized how tired he himself felt. Standing up slowly he made to follow Ron up the winding stairs to their dormitory when he saw something move. Hermione was already on her way up the stairs to the girls' dormitories and Ron was in front of him meaning that somebody else was in the common room with them and had overheard their not so quiet conversation. Ron stopped in front of him and looked at Harry with concern, "Something wrong?" Feeling intrigued Harry nodded his head slowly. "Yeah…I just forgot my books by the fireplace. I'll be up in a minute," Harry lied. Shrugging it off, Ron turned and thankfully made his way up the stairs, clearly looking forward to collapsing on his four poster bed that awaited him at the top of the staircase. Instead of walking over to the fireplace again Harry walked to the left, making his way to one of the large windows in the common room that looked over the vast lush Hogwarts grounds. Looking around the windows and not seeing anything Harry decided that his imagination was just on edge from the recent dream, but then it happened again. It was almost as if the black dark that surrounded him was moving towards the window. A sliver of moonlight showed a somewhat familiar face; the blonde hair was in her eyes but instead of looking warm like they had at breakfast last week when Harry had talked to her, they now seemed alive and foreboding.

* * *

Nothing eventful had happened during the soon to be weekly ritual of visiting Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing to receive a potion concocted by the nurse and Professor Snape, the Potions Master, to settle her cravings for human blood. She entered the hospital wing, drank the vile honey yellow potion that smelled like a bag of old socks, sat for a few seconds, thanked the nurse then turned around and left. Nobody saw her go in or out as they were all too busy fooling around, telling jokes and gossiping in their common rooms. God, how Taylor hated people like that! She could never quite figure out why anybody would want to spend their life talking about everybody else instead of doing something fun, something they'll always remember. When those gossiping drama queens would die their long, slow painful death that Taylor wished upon them they would have nothing good to remember about themselves, just everybody else lives. Maybe then they'd realize how stupid they'd been to waste their life dying instead of living. Nobody seemed to take their life too seriously anymore; all they cared about was fitting in and knowing the right people. Why was it that everybody at Hogwarts didn't seem to realize that life was too short?

By the time she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady in the pink dress Taylor was feeling rather bitter. "Password?" the Fat Lady said rather giddily; she had been visiting with her friend Violet and judging by the number of empty bottles in the painting Taylor easily put two and two together. "Abstinence," Taylor said tiredly then quickly clambered through the hole leading to the Gryffindor Common Room as the Fat Lady's portrait moved aside. Just as she had expected the common room was nearly empty, except for three people seated near the fireplace. One seemed to be sleeping and the other two were working on what appeared to be either an essay for a class or a very long letter to their families. None of them looked up as Taylor strode into the empty room and made her way to the windows on the far side of the room. That was one of the things that she loved so much about having her dormitory and common room being up in one of the towers. All of the windows in the room overlooked the sweeping Hogwarts Grounds. From where she was she couldn't see the lake but had a clear view of the forest which seemed to stretch on for miles. Glancing down she noticed a rather large man striding down from the castle rather tipsy and make his way to a small hut located on the edge of the forest. When the man entered the hut and the door closed, her eyes switched to looking up at the dark night sky.

She would have stayed standing there in the shadows looking up at the starry sky until morning, but the three people by the fireplace interrupted her peace. It didn't take too much effort to listen to what they were saying, whereas had she been any other person they probably would've had to move closer to hear them as clearly as she did. Out of all the things that had changed since she had been bitten she had to admit that the super hearing she seemed to have adopted had its advantages at times. Taylor listened as one of them described a dream he just had then the three burst into discussion. Turning back to look up at the stars she tried to tune them out; she had heard all she needed to. Maybe her stay at Hogwarts wasn't going to be as long as she had hoped it would be. Hearing silence again she turned swiftly to see what had happened to the three friends. One was gone and the other two were making their way up to their dormitory where they would sleep peacefully, completely unaware that she would be sitting there by the window all night watching the world die slowly. They stopped. Her eyes went somewhat cold as she watched them the same way she would watch an animal when she was hunting in the forest. There was more talking then one of them continued up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Taylor managed to stay completely calm as the other walked towards the window where she stood in the shadow hidden from his sight. He must've seen her when she turned to look at them.

It took her eyes a second to realize that it was Harry standing at the window. Glancing around to make sure that nobody else was there she stepped towards him slightly, letting the full moon and stars light her pale skin. She could tell that Harry recognized her as he looked into her eyes. After hearing the details about the dream he had had she figured that she could probably let a little bit of information fall into his hands, but nothing that would give anything away. "Sounds like a pretty interesting dream you had there," she said quietly. Her eyes quickly locked onto his. "You heard?" Harry asked, sounding somewhat hopeful that she didn't. A small sly smile played on her lips, "There's very little I _didn't_ hear." The hopeful look vanished from Harry's face. "So, I take it you and your friends have a pretty good idea of who this girl is?" Taylor asked finally breaking eye contact and looking up to the stars again. A crease formed on Harry's forehead as he frowned, "No actually, we never even thought about that. Why?" The smile remained in tact as Taylor spoke again, her eyes traveling over the moon, "The moon's always so beautiful when it's full." Deciding to leave Harry there with a highly confused look on his face Taylor caught his eyes, then turned and made her way up to the dormitory where she would lie awake until dawn.


End file.
